Sunny Van Handel

SUNNY VAN HANDEL

Sunny is our little yellow Cockateil who thinks he rules the house and us. And he is correct!!
He knows he is the boss and he keeps us in line. He has his established rutine and thinks we all should stick to it. He idolizes his father he calls "Wheet" so much!!! When Wheet takes a nap, Sunny has to sit on his chest or his side. Sometimes Wheet has kidney stones and has to take very strong pain killers, that put him to sleep for around 4 1/2 hours. His 'watchdog' , Sunny is right there sitting on his Dad, and Sunny doesn't make one sound or move , the whole 4 1/2 hours. (of course, we do worry that his dad might involuntarily move during his sleep, but if Sunny can't be with Wheet, he screeches the whole time.

The 2nd very best thing is eating his meals at the table with us. Even when we have company. (because all our friends love the smart little character, and who would mind sharing your plate with such a cute little guy)

When his Dad is gone, he is my constant companion & I am called Sweet Pea. He knows he can really work me, & I will be so sad for him I cry, but he's so funny I'm laughing too.

He used to talk a lot, but then he trained us to pay attention to his little movements and sounds. whatever he looks at, then looks at us, & says "eh" means he wants to be there, or do that RIGHT NOW. He'll go over to the organ or the keyboard & look at it, look at me, say "eh" and I am supossed to hop to right away, and play music for him. He loves most music, but not too high, or shrill.

He comes up to me and stands on top of my foot and says "up" -- now this might mean he wants on my shoulder, or on the counter or table, but often he then runs to where he want to get up to. hopefully somewhere he can chew things up and get into trouble.

And when he doesn't want me to leave the house, he runs over & stands in front of the door so I can't open it. I have to do manuevers to go around the circle of the rooms, one way & then the other to try to fool him enough that I can slip out the door before he gets back there.

So many people think that birds a re just dumb little things that sit in a cage. Sunny is only in the cage if we are gone quite awhile in the day. He doesn't sleep in it, he sleeps on his desk, but he does get up on top of his play pen set that is on top of his big cage, on top of his desk, ---
in his side bedroom with the 2 windows in the corner by his desk.

Sunny is already a little past 10 years old. His Daddy is 82, I'm almost 77, and he can live to be 35 to 37 years old. Good thing my Daughters have all had birds!!!

He has such a memory!!! but that is for another story, next time.
#7